Appointment of SAA CEO and progress made on government’s Inclusive Growth Action Plan
3 August 2017
Vuyani Jarana has been appointed South African Airways Chief Executive Officer. He will commence his duties after his current employer has officially released him. Mr Jarana is currently Chief Officer for Vodacom Business at Vodacom Group LTD, a position he has held since 2012. He is also a member of the core leadership team of Vodacom Group responsible for the enterprise segment across the continent. Mr Jarana has, among others, transformed and positioned Vodacom Business as a growth engine of Vodacom, growing its contribution to group service revenues from under 10% to 25% over three years. Transformed Stortech, a 51% subsidiary of Vodacom, from a declining business to new growth company, changing shareholding structure and developing new strategy that responds to the changes in the market. He built a solid and transformed organisation with emphases on both top line business growth as well as margin expansion.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba congratulated Mr Jarana, and said: “given that Mr Jarana has turned around a loss-making subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, Vodacom Business Africa, into profitable and growth business, we believe he will be key in turning around SAA.”
Other than the appointment of an SAA CEO, Minister Gigaba had also undertaken to meet the deadlines set on National Treasury in the 14-point Action Plan released in July. National Treasury was tasked with actioning three key issues by the deadline of July 31 namely: the appointment of a CEO for South African Airways; implementing the Preferential Procurement Regulations which took effect on April 1; and engaging other government departments on the Private Sector Participation framework.
Implementing the Preferential Procurement Regulations: the regulations have been implemented since 1 April 2017 and are applicable to all organs of state. Implementation commenced on 1 April 2017 and the reference to July 2017 is linked to accelerating efforts towards inclusive growth – preferential procurement regulations are one of the policy instruments to accelerate the inclusive economic activity.
The implementation is linked to the demand plans departments published over the 12 months covering April 17 to March 2018. Guidelines for the implementation have been issued and continuous technical support and guidance through national and provincial Supply Chain Management forums is being provided, as well as extended implementation support to institutions that have specifically requested further orientation sessions.
On the Private Sector Participation (PSP) framework: Ministers, particularly those in the Economic Cluster have been engaging at various platforms, including Cabinet Lekgotlas.
Statement issued by National Treasury, 3 August 2017
